XIV SONEGO PRIZE
A short film screenplay competition that rewards finalist stories with six months of development and refinement.
For its 14th edition, the Award is looking for authors who are able to try their hand at writing stories capable of hybridizing comedy with genres Romantic Comedy, Crime Comedy and Sports Comedy.
Comedies of the future. Beyond the clichés we're used to, they captivate us with their style, but also with their depth and courage.
You can register with an unpublished short film script of up to fifteen pages.
The competition, dedicated to Venetian screenwriter Rodolfo Sonego—the father of Italian comedy and creator of the Alberto Sordi character—organizes intensive script-writing weekends in the heart of the Prosecco hills, alongside expert tutors. It also offers workshops on pitching and graphic design, collaborations with graphic designers and illustrators for poster design, and support sessions for the English adaptation of scripts and pitches.
Furthermore brings finalist screenwriters to present their work at the Lago Film Fest's Barefoot Industry Days (the networking event of the famous independent film festival) and calls together a jury of excellence to announce the winner at the Venice International Film Festival.
You have time until January 15, 2022 to submit your screenplay and become one of the nine finalists of the 14th edition.
ON THE SONEGO METHOD
«It was born completely spontaneously, in the sense that Rodolfo never theorized the creation of a workshop (…) in reality the workshop was a very small group of friends to whom Rodolfo taught the trade. [His teachings consisted] simply of working… he never made abstract theories». So says Silvia Napolitano, a screenwriter who was part of that very small group of friends at the time. It is also in this idea of a small and hard-working coterie that the Summer Camp is rooted, a totally immersive experience that accompanies the contest for young screenwriters named after Rodolfo Sonego: nine finalists, selected on the basis of the quality of their work, who for four days are subjected to a regime of improvement and a bombardment of stimuli from a benevolent Full Metal Jacket. The workshop moments of concrete development of the screenplays that will then be tested in the competition, with the feedback and constant assistance of the three tutors, are accompanied by theoretical insights on the topic, and both are combined with talks, screenings and exercises.
The award is sponsored by the Veneto Film Commission, and the jury announces the winners at the Veneto Region/Veneto Film Commission Space at the Venice International Film Festival – La Biennale di Venezia.
